A man attempting to exhume his late father's body from his garden left neighbours horrified after spilling the remains over the lawn, it was revealed today.

John Lansdowne, 60, from Llandysul, west Wales, had originally buried his father in the grounds of his old house, but was attempting to move the coffin to an address 20 miles away after selling his former home.

He had been granted special permission to perform the exhumation in front of environmental health officers and an undertaker, but went ahead with the ceremony by himself last Sunday using a garden fork and spade.

The pedigree sheep breeder said his late father would have been unhappy with his efforts.

"This was the first exhumation I have ever carried out and I think you can quite safely say it will be my last," he said.

"My dad was a very practical man and I think he would have had a word or two to say about the way I went about it. I was simply complying with his wishes. He wanted to be buried in the place he called home.

"A full reburial would have cost me well over #1,000 and I'm afraid I just don't have that kind of money."

While trying to lift the coffin from the ground, it became jammed and Mr Lansdowne attempted to release it by attaching it to the bumper of his car.

But as he dragged the casket out, it fell apart with the remains spilling out on to the new homeowner's lawn.

Mr Lansdowne's 90-year-old father William died of cancer in November last year and Ceredigion County Council confirmed that he was granted special permission by the Home Office to bury him in his garden in Gorrig Road, Llandysul.

He was later granted permission to re-bury his father at his new home in Tregaron.

Mr Lansdowne said: "Unfortunately, the coffin had been in the ground for months and was totally waterlogged. It must have weighed in excess of 400lbs and as it emerged from the soil the coffin broke up.

"Police were called and the whole thing turned into a bit of a circus. There were 14 people stood there gawping."

Mr Lansdowne's former home was sold to civil engineer Peter Harries who, it is understood, gave him permission to carry out the exhumation provided it was done in a proper manner.

His sister-in-law Anne Harries, 36, said: "The way the man went about it was unbelievable. We all found it terribly upsetting. There was absolutely no dignity at all.

"Our family watched the whole thing and so did some of the neighbours."

Environmental officers from Ceredigion County Council attended the scene and an undertaker removed the body to a chapel of rest to prior to re-burial on Monday at Mr Lansdowne's new home in Tregaron.

A council spokesman said: "An exhumation order carries strict conditions dating back to the times of the bubonic plague and mass outbreaks of tuberculosis.

"The area should have been screened off and the exhumation carried out by an undertaker with an environmental health inspector present throughout the procedure."

He added that a formal investigation was under way into the incident.

A Dyfed Powys police spokeswoman confirmed that an officer was called to the scene to help out.